Looking at – and seeing – the world
July 4, 2020 Leave a comment
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Early morning clouds over our garden; 22 Apr 2013.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto each image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens; 400 ISO; all underexposed to various degrees in Capture NX2 to saturate colour and bring out detail.
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June 30, 2020 4 Comments
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Early morning, the streets quiet and deserted, and a shaft of reflected sunlight illuminates the driving seat of a decidedly up market auto.
There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 . Each will open in a separate window.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 25 June 2020.
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June 26, 2020 4 Comments
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Walking in the lockdown, and photographing the long shadows thrown across a main road by the rising sun. A shadow photographer – in both senses of the phrase – caught up in a world of stark diagonals.
There are three types of lines here. Those running from lower right towards upper left are the shadows of roadside trees and utility poles. The strong black and white lines running up from the lower middle of the frame towards the top right corner are the road’s pale kerb and gutter and, between the two, the black shadow of the kerb on the gutter. And finally there are the road markings, a thin, dashed white line along the middle of the road at upper left, and other dashed lines, at a bus stop, towards upper right.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: TG-5 at 65mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Antique Plate 1 preset; south Bristol; 22 June 2020.
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June 25, 2020 8 Comments
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Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 250 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 14 June 2020.
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June 24, 2020 5 Comments
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Early morning dew. And The FATman to photograph it.
There are earlier images in this Parked Car series here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 . Each will open in a separate window.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 15 June 2020.
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June 22, 2020 8 Comments
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Looking up over our garden this morning – clouds and a contrail caught by the rising sun; Bristol; 22 Apr 2013.
I was just on the point of making that greatest of luxuries, the morning’s first cup of tea, when I glanced out of the window. And then came one of the great improbables – a FATman moving at a rate of knots – in a frantic dash out into the back garden!
I love skies and clouds but, especially when the sun is just appearing or disappearing, and when contrails are moving steadily across the sky, things happen quickly – and there’s no time to hang about!
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 135mm; 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Fine Art High Key preset.
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June 18, 2020 12 Comments
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Well, I’m still walking in the lockdown, usually leaving home at 0530. The lighter summer mornings make early starts easier, and I relish the emptiness the lockdown has brought. Although there is some traffic about – and with the lockdown loosening that has increased a little – in the course of walking for two hours I may only see 10 or fewer other pedestrians at this early hour. And the fact that some of us now regularly encounter each other has brought a welcome camaraderie – a greeting, a few words exchanged, always at many yards’ distance – which brings a little more sense of normality, a little less desolation in the midst of all this quiet emptiness.
I’ve mapped out a route for walking along which, in most places, there are spaces that make it easier to distance myself from oncoming people. Those out running are the main problem, and I am by no means the first to notice that many (but not all) of them simply run straight towards you, spraying out great lungfuls of moist breath and evidently expecting you to get out of their way. Me being me, I have on a couple of occasions refused to move, and have seen the shocked looks as they veer suddenly to one side at the last moment. This pandemic has revealed many interesting aspects of human psychology.
But the point of this post is to pass onto you something strange. For there is one short section of my long walk that I have for some bizarre reason grown to like and welcome each early morning – and it is the scene above. This is a long, wide, dead straight road, a major thoroughfare, that our really totally inadequate and inept local authority has chosen to place a 20mph speed limit on. And as I walk out onto this road and look to my left, I see the scene above. There is a lovely grove of trees on the right that always have squirrels around them, and occasionally foxes too. And further up on the same side of the road there is a little patch of red, that is a lurid advertisement on the side of a bus shelter. And beyond are the slopes of Dundry Hill which – on this particular morning – had lovely mist in the treetops along its summit.
And I can’t explain why, but every time I come out onto this big, empty, quiet road, and look up towards the lurid red poster on the bus stop and the green hill behind, I have definite feelings of peace, calm and belonging. And I also have a feeling that when that poster and the lockdown are gone, that this place will not affect me in the same way. And so I’ve taken a few photos to remind me of this scene, to help remind me of how these strange days were – and here are some of these pics. And I’ve remembered that, as always, Life itself can be strange.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto each image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended for the first two shots only!!!
Technique: TG-5; Lightroom; south Bristol; June 2020.
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Getting closer to the bus stop: the poster and the misty hilltop now more plainly in view.
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LOL!!! and here is “the artwork” itself. I have not the slightest idea what its advertising – but I like the lurid red!!!
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June 16, 2020 2 Comments
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A bright moon on an icy morning, just at sunrise, and a pair of Jackdaws are on the top of a chimney in the village Stanton Drew, not far south of Bristol.
Jackdaws are our smallest crow, they pair for life, and they are often around our houses – and especially our chimneys – in which (amongst other places) they nest. They are sociable, garrulous and often quite accepting of man, and I have a lot of affection for them – but then, I have a lot of affection for wildlife generally.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Provia/Standard film simulation; Stanton Drew, near Bristol; 6 Nov 2017.
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June 12, 2020 6 Comments
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A farmer and his wife, off in their Land Rover to check on their cattle out on Tadham Moor, on the Somerset Levels, after the long, late November night; 27 Nov 2014.
I was having a second breakfast of hot coffee and thick, bitter marmalade sandwiches in the Magic Carpark, when this old couple drove by, waving and smiling in a very friendly way, and made off down the foggy track to make sure that all was well with their cattle after the long, cold night.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 86mm; 6400 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4.
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June 11, 2020 4 Comments
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Walking early on a Sunday morning – my favourite morning for walking in the lockdown because everyone else is enjoying a cosy lie in, and the streets are particularly deserted. I’m often walking down the middle of empty roads, something which brings a strangeness of its own.
Just before 7am I found this tableau amongst run-down garages on a crowded housing estate. I’ve posted about this drug before, but I can’t resist this example >>>> its even colour coordinated! So what do we have? Well, the remnants of a good night out in the outer suburbs. The empty box contained little metal canisters of nitrous oxide or laughing gas, which is supposed to be used for making whipped cream in a dispenser – but the fact is this gas also gives you a high, and its now the second commonest recreational drug in the UK after cannabis.
An empty canister is up at top right, and I won’t say that the streets I walk are littered with these, but its very common to see them. And bottom right is the balloon that the gas is squirted into – for ease of sniffing. Altogether there were four balloons and seven canisters.
So, a Saturday night high amongst the derelict garages for some local kids. And in these troubled times, presumably no thoughts of social distancing.
MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: I passed this way again the following morning, and all of these “artefacts” had been cleared away by some dutiful citizen.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: TG-5 at 65mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 7 June 2020.
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